The five men arrived outside the bar shortly after it had closed following a drinking contest between Marion and an Australianclimber, won by the former, but the men could not yet enter the building as AmericanarchaeologistIndiana Jones, an old friend of Ravenwood, was visiting the bar that night. After Jones had left, the Mongolian, the Nepalese man and the two Germans entered the bar, leaving the larger goon outside in case they needed backup. Toht spoke to the bar owner as Otto stood by the fire, the Nepalese man stood in front of the bar and the Mongolian subtly followed Marion behind the bar.[2]

As Toht walked over to the fire whilst engaged in a passive-aggressive argument with Ravenwood, the Mongolian was fully behind Marion by the bar. When Toht gave the order, he grabbed Marion, picking her right up off the floor, and, with the aid of the Nepalese man, dragged her, screaming to the centre of the room, where Toht slowly approached her with a flaming metal rod, a sight which made both men restraining the American smile. However, just as the rod was put right up to her face, Jones appeared and swung his bullwhip to grab the rod and fling it away, drawing a revolver and pointing it at the men.[2]

Otto diving for cover.

The two thugs looked at each other as Toht was threatened, but moments afterwards Otto emerged from behind the fireplace and fired his machine gun at Jones. The archaeologist ducked behind cover, whilst the Mongolian hopped behind the bar, the Nepalese man took cover beneath a table, Otto remained behind the fireplace and Toht drew a pistol and went behind a pillar. The Mongolian produced a bag and drew a revolver from it for himself, before tossing a machine gun to his associate. As a gunfight ensued, Jones managed to shoot the fire, sending flaming logs tumbling into the Nepalese goon. Burning, the man stood up screaming, only to be shot in the face by Jones, killing him.[2]

Afterwards, Jones was beginning to gain the upper hand when the bigger man entered the bar and accosted him. Upon the sherpa's entrance, Otto, Toht and the Mongolian both ceased fire and watched the thug beating Jones. Distracted by his comrade’s arrival, the Mongolian provided Marion with enough time to slam a burning log over his head, knocking him unconscious. With only Toht, Otto and the Nepalese sherpa still standing, the two Germans eventually became impatient as they watched the sherpa wrestling and attempting to suffocate Jones, so Toht simply had Otto load his machine gun and shoot them both. Realizing that they had a common enemy, the sherpa and Jones aimed the gun they were wrestling over in the direction of the machine-gun toting German and fired it several times, killing Otto. His body slumped over near Toht as the Major crawled across the floor to the headpiece. Otto's corpse was then left to burn down within The Raven.[2]

A rat-faced German agent with a seedy thin moustache, Otto was a Nazi intelligence agent as MajorArnold Ernst Toht, his superior. While he was thin, Otto tended to loom like a sinister shadow behind Toht. An evil grin sprawled through his face whenever Toht gave him particularly nasty commands.[3]

During the development of the film's script, written by Lawrence Kasdan, Otto had a line that went unused in the final movie. The line was "He's our man!", said to Toht in response to being ordered to open fire on both Indiana Jones and their ally.

In the Raiders novelization by Campbell Black, Otto is noted as having an eye patch, the reason for which he is called "Eyepatch" in the novel. Also in the book, Indy and the Sherpa shoot him only once, in the throat.[4] In the comic book adaptation, Toht insults Otto by calling him a "schweinhund" ("pig-dog" in German) and, as the bigger sherpa is absent, the Mongoliangoon is the one who helps Jones to kill him.[5]